The Ultimate Terror, Part Two
'Team Titan Think Tank Issue 43 "The Ultimate Terror" (Par't 2.) Front cover- it shows the various forms of the new 'Black' Blitzkrieg that the readers have seen, and some others as well. In the centre of the cover is the shadowy, instinct, yet still metallic form that is seen when he is not looking into anyone's eyes Then there is the classic super speed variant of the Nano-Blitzkrieg form, the original 60's form, where Blitzkrieg was a hollowed out cybernetic shell with Doktor Dominion's corpse plugged into it. There is the monstrous, metallic spiked version of Graham Stevens that Tonic saw, and in the background, there is a metallic, multi-headed dinosaur with burning fires in its multiple mouths... So, when we last left our heroes, Blitzkrieg had brought the city into the real world, hundreds of metal spheres have been launched out of the ground across the city into the air, and Waterstone has just appeared out of a ticking cloud of smoke and told you that the city is going to explode in about a minute "Mum... I mean, Directer Waterstone?" says Reb. Yu stares at Waterstone in disbelief. "In the flesh. Sort of. Like you, I'm maybe not quite as human as I seem. But, we need to save that for later. Sorry son... and despite everything, you are still my son", Waterstone says. "What in the multiverse..." Mr Psychic exclaims. "Precisely." Reb smiles to, and nods "Right!" "...D...director...sir...I'm sorry..." Tonic glances to Sonne "T...try the signal again, I guess, Sonne...only thing I was ever good for..." her shoulders sag in utter defeat "I...I don't know what to do anymore...I've screwed everything up..." "Oh, hush, Tonic! Now's not the time!" Cain snips, turning to not quite grin to Waterstone, "While you're feeling helpful, Director, what ''exactly is about to explode?" "The whole city. I can't... I can't tell you specifics. I just got a premonition. Shamrock of all people taught me that I should make use of them. So I am." She points up "Incoming!" Three black metal spheres crash down from the sky, similar to the cocooned forms of Shifter Reichdroids in contruction, but clearly veseels instead, as they split in half and open, spewing out dry ice. The chill from these containment devices is imminently obvious. The spheres don't seem to have crashed randomly, the reader sees from above that they have landed around the team in a triangular pattern. Out of one of the pods comes a brutish human arm. And another. And then two more. In the next panel, there is the silhouette of a human-sized form, stooped over but muscular, covered in a multitude of arms. The reader then sees the man step out of each pod, an identical man. Each with five extra limbs sprouted out of their back, balding, stopped, ugly looking small-eyed caucasion men, all dressed in orange jumpsuits. "***! Thats Limb. This isn't Blitzkrieg's work... Moleculus has cloned our own dead!" says Tommy Gunn "How... inconvenient." Cain says, dropping back into a more thoughtful pose "Despicable..." Yu glowers, then looks around at the others. "We need to stop the rest of those spheres. And the destruction of this city...Director, how do we stop him?" "You're the guys who've been fighting him! iI saw an explosion so I time-jumped here to warn you... give me a break, Yu!" Waterstone blurts out Atomic looks up, and gestures vaguely around them. The cold suddenly seems to stop just short of each of the heroes (and the not so heroes) as they are restored to a far more pleasant temperature. "...Nn...none of that now, thanks." The temperature then seems to flare the other way...except outwards, the air actually shimmering with heat haze instead. The cold from the speherical pods is immediately quenched, as the pods suddenly smoke as they fglow with the heat. Two of the three clones collapse heavily. The other is sweating immensely, wiping his brow with a multitude of arms. "We need to f...find those bombs. Quickly...this...this is just stalling tactics" "Thats why I came to the smart guys... Prime will be on their way. But they've got a whole tidal wave thing to deal with first." "I can deal with the bombs, just-... tell me where they are", Sonne says. Limb projects his extra arms protuding from his back; he targets two at Sonne, two at Atomic and one at Waterstone "Sonne, you n...NEED to deploy BREAKER first..." "LUCKY can see to that." Sonne catches a fist and then starts to bring up a small disc sized focre field with the other hand, which the elognated fist shatters and strikes Sonne in the face. But the force dome holds, repelling the fist. The fists have elongated up int he air thirty foot, as Sonne was trying to punch Blitzkrieg. Two more fists catch Atomic int he chest and belly. Where the punches strike...she seems to disintegrate into a cloud of dust or ash, literally blurring into the 'flesh' at the edges, giving a barely audible whimper of pain...the ash then drifts back together into what remains of her normal form, but seems...almost blurred at the edges. "What the hell h-" Waterstone starts to say, then a fist catches her right in the face. She looks at her son and says "Save them." And passes out. Reb looks to his mum wide eyed. Then in the sky, from the swarm of spheres descending into the sky, five split open and out of them shoot bolts of electircal energy that fly down at the team. In the next panel, the reader sees that they are not electrical bolts, but identical men surrounded by electrical fields. They are clearly different clones to the last, but these are all the same man as well, again dressed in orange jumpsuits from than costumes, all bald once again, but more tall, wiry, athletic men, though their faces are those of a man with a particularly ugly, criminal past, a nose and chin altered from many breaks.The five men fly down, fists first, as the fists generate the most electricity, it seems. In unison, they open their palms and from each hands they flex their fingers, and from two fingers on each hand, fire out a bolt of electricity "Shortfuse..." Mr Psychic remarks. "Genius proposal!" says Null. He raises his hands at the electircal bolts coming towards the gathered superhumans, and circles of white energy shoot upwards at them. 15 of the 20 electricial bolts fizzle out in mid-air. "I ''was trying to be rid of this curse, but since your young man returned it, one may as well make use!" he yells out to no-one in particular "...Once...once we are d..done here, I...i can take it away again...I promise...and...I'm sorry..." "This is not the time for apologies and gripes, Bethoni!" Null yells out, as an electricla bolt comes right at him. As Cain enters the panel, leaping in the way of the bolt. But inches away from touching him, his form shifts again, his claws turning metallic. As the electricity arcs down his arm, he shifts into a crimson red mecha-raptor, somewhat reminiscent of CABER, with the same face visor but in the colour of Cain's yellow eyes. As there is a small electrical whine from somewhere inside him, and the remaining bolts are directed into him "Terribly sorry, Blitzkrieg... it may have been misleading to say you couldn't stop me. You see, I've made a few friends lately who don't want to stab me in the back the moment it's turned... As CRIMSON CAIN!" "W...well...most of the time we don't want to..." she gives a faint smile, though it's not quite convincing. Reb stares at his mum and he just screams "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He kicks of the ground in a sudden blaze of light as he becomes the gestalt again; everyone has a thin cordon of light connected to him, bar Blitzkireg, his clones and Atomic. The labcoat is missing on the gestalt as he hurtles towards Blitzkrieg, a large orante chinese blade in his hands. He reaches Blitzkireg. "You made a poor mistake when you took the power of fear into you, you became fear", he pulls his fist back, "and Fear is to be CONQUERERED!" He goes to throw a punch, but he stops, opens his palm and from the fingers come 5 strands of the same thin light connecting the heroes to him. The strands fly out to Blitzkireg; 4 go wide but one thin strand hits him smack dab where his heart would be, if he was human anymore. "No, I vill NEVER be conquered, do you KNOW what KRIEG means? War! You cannot conquer w-...w-..." White light shoots out from the strand imbedded in the chest, tendrils of white light shooting out from his chest towards his head and limbs. "Warrrrrr..." he opens his mouth, as white light projects from it. "You'd best hope not," Reb mutters in everyone's voice. "Why... do youu fear... that I might be too much..." Black energy passees through two of the tendrils and black ripples of energy start to corrupt Reb's gestalt form "...to CONTAIN?" As he looks into Reb's eyes, his form changes, as his body becomes that of the 60s Blitzkrieg. Except, inside the chest, instead of Doktor Domion's corpse, are Laura Waterstone and Steve, and Lukey, hammering away, looking at Reb in fear. The gestalt form is wavering and rippling, a single tear falls then he narrows his eyes "Laura accepted Reb, away with your lies," "Reb...remember the p...picture Lukey made f...for you. Y...you're his h...hero", Atomic calls up. "And avay..." Blitzkrieg looks up and sees six more spheres separate apart, ss out of them drop more clones. "VITH YOU!" The six jumpsuited men are in their twenties, with black hair, atheletic and handsome. But that does not last long. One of them ha tis head turn into a lizard, sprouts bat wings and eagle talons, another grows pterodactyl wings, a tiger head and claws and each one becomes a different human-animal amalgam. Three fly at Sonne, three at Reb. Sonne managed to dodge the first, only to crash into the third one, which cuts through weaker joints of his armour. Fortunately his reflexes drive him away from the third. The three reach into the Reb gestalt; one smashes into his legs, and as they buckle, the second punches him in the side of the head, sending him spiralling into the crushing blow of the third one, who slams into him from above, sending the gestalt falling to the ground. All the thin lines of light grow dimmer and seem to fade but are still there. The gestalt hits the ground hard with a sickening crunch. Yu turns, still in a ready stance. "General Hardwell! Your fliers need to stop those spheres! Have your teleporters help out too!" "All right, I'll see how many high roofs I can get my men too and take the fight to them!" The General of the Militia responds Yu nods, and then suddenly vanishes, reappearing in midair by one of the beastmen assaulting Sonne. He axe kicks the man straight towards the ground, flashes to the next, smashes his polearm into that one, and flashes again to the third, spinning and sending it sailing with a back fist. All three tumble to the ground. All three turn back tot heir human form, unconscious. Null looks to one of the clones. "Max..." He then looks up. "Damn you Blitzkrieg, you have sullied the memories of a good man, the first Titan to ever truly earn my respect!" His fists glow brightly Just before he submits to gravity, Yu glances towards Sonne and nods. "Your plan: do it." As he falls, he teleports one last time, reappearing on the ground, landing nimbly on his feat, weapon held ready. Tommy flies his super-car into the air. "Lightning: access powers against Blitzkrieg." "Accesing- Blitzkrieg traditionally immune to electrcity, heat and radiation. Activating plasma weaponry." A mutlitude of guns fly out of the bonnet. "Son, do your thing... I got a MASSIVE bone to pick!" He unleashes a plasma barrage against Blitzkrieg, but each bolt hits him with no effect "Please Gunn... your technological knowhow is but a child's compared to mine." "Your new super-form AIN'T from tech, you said it yerself! How about you shrug off the magic and fight me TECH TO TECH!" "I never abandon a game advantage" says Blitzkrieg, as his form turns to the first Nano-Bltizxkrieg as he looks at Tommy; it does not possess the lithe, superfast form of the next stage, but it is taller, and its spikes larger, and claws longer, lacking the cloak and cable-like hair. He raises a hand, and the bolts just bounce off it Iron Jack looks to Yu. "Sir, I intend to destroy as many of those spheres as I can." Yu nods grimly. "Do what you can." Iron Jack takes out his rifle, aims and fires. And one sphere explodes. "Will do." The shockwave takes out a mass of sphere in a girnormous explosion. Yu looks skyward, taken aback. "...good shot." Jack then attachs something to the bottom of his rifle. "More where that came from."He fires a multitude of further shots. He fires seven shots, and destroys seven spheres "DC, follow suit!" he yells over at his TT Black companion "Le Qui, lets see how an amazing shot you really are!" The shadowy man draws his pistol. "Well, I plan to make zat display look like a duck shoot..." Le Qui also explodes a sphere and several others, with the shockwave, then shoots oiut the propulsion of another, as it drops towards the ground, but the next shot bounces off a sphere. "... You have bettair ammo. I call cheat." He then disappears "Yeah, we know who is best..." says Jack, blowing on his smoking barrel. Then out of the flaming cloud in the sky descend four forms, smoke practically dripping from them. As four mountains of men, again bald, and completely pug-hideous, land. They have completely ridiculous amounts of bulging muscle, again clones in orange jumpsuits. They have one huge eye, and one tiny eye. "Oh spoke to bloody soon... look out people, we're about to get Curb stomped!" The four powrhosue clones land among the Militia. One miltia-man gets flung into the air, another smashed into the ground, aniother in silhouette is shown being torn in half. But another raises his arms above his head, deflecting the fists with a disk that appears in front of his crossed arms Bio-hazard launches at one of the Curbs. "ONE OF YOU UGLY MOTHER ***KERS WAS ENOUGH!" White fire burns in his fists. He flies into one of the Curb clones, punches him in the chest, and then flies off, launching the Curb with him through the air in a white streak of fire. As debris ploughs up around them as he smashes him through the debris field. 100ft away, he stands up. The Curb does not. Damage Control points his sonic cannons at another Curb, as the giant clutches his ears and collapses to the floor "Rock skin... nothing against sonics." And then the man with the kinetic energy disc releases it and launches the final Curb into the far distance. Several soldiers clap him on the shoulders. "All right, we're one teleporter down, but I want the rest of you going through portal up there!" General Hardwell yells, pointing up. "I don't want those spheres leaving the confines of this city! Fliers, take as many down as you can, ranged troops, if you can hit them from here, do so!" And the miltia get to work. Kaan'Qsst then looks to Bio-Luminal. "To Stevens." The creature does as bidden. Kaan'Qsst slaps Null on the shoulder. "Let us end this." "Quite." Kaan'Qsst picks up Fraud over his shoulder and the four disappear in a purple flash "LUCKY, Deploy Breaker!" Sonne yells out. "Maximum range- entirety of Titan City, to the entirety of Great Britain. Please specify target nanosystems." "Titan City!" "Affirmative. Beginning shutdown of all nanosystems within Titan City, with exemption of Sonne Gunn's nanites." The electrical men flying in the sky suddenly cease being electrical. Sonne watches as his orders causes them to fall from the sky, where they smash upon the ground, bloodily. "One remaining current nanosytem combatting attempts. Contunuing. Will inform Sonne Gunn upon completion." "I'm sure I can help with that effort..." Gunn mutters, conjuring a wave of ZiPPE Energy into his hand which he releases in a focused bolt at Blitzkrieg. "Hardly" says Blitzkrieg, turning to the more recent Nano-Bltizxkrieg form as he looks at Sonne. He flies at Sonne, through the concussion blast "How pleasing it will be to have the father watch ze son..." As he flies, the white lines of energy that were spreading through his body diminishing "... FALL!" Black talons rake black lightning through the air at Sonne. Gunn reels from the assault, hands going wide as he falls limp, blacking out momentarily, his suit keeping him aloft only just. The lightning doesn't seem to burn him or his suit, despite his suit and injuries repairing before the reader's eyes, yet he is in pain nontheless. In the air, the flying milita are engaged by white glowing women, blasting solar beams. One militiaman, surrounded by a heat aura, soaks the blasts without harm, and the beams seem to go through Hardwell. A bat-winged man gets blown out the air and the avian man gets a wing torn off and crashes through a building. leaving only two fliers of the 50 men left. Then two more of the Eclipse clones fly down at the team, both beams targetted at the Gunn. A beam glances of the rear of Tommy's flying car and starts a small fire. No clones are attacking the team currently other than the two Eclipses and the three Primals that took down Reb. Sonne's suit fractures and hisses as the beam pierces some vital componant, causing Sonne to weave drunkenly. There are four more Eclipses, that are fighting the two remaining miltia fliers still. "Well, I suppose now isn't really a time for subtlety," Mr Psychic says as he focuses on a large piece of debris while holding down the button on his hat. The debris lifts slowly at first, and speeds up as it heads towards the Primal clones. It slams into all three at once. He then telekinetically directs the slab to flip around and slams all three clones into the ground. Atomic gives several shocked blinks at Mr Psychic. Cain quietly assesses the situation a moment, faceplate glinting at the energy blasts, looking skyward. With the hiss of metal on metal, wings spring out of his back, and he uses them to rocket into the air in the direction of the militia. As he flies, there is a quiet ringing from within his helmet/head "I'm assuming this is about the Independance Day situation going on above?" comes the response "Afraid so, my friend. Barely even time for banter." "The city is about to explode. We don't know how yet, or from where. If you think it's tactically wise, I'd suggest getting anyone that thinks that could help in figuring either of those out and get to it. Everyone else... that would be everyone, if it ''is ''stupid... get Nykus to warp them back up. They don't need to die for this place." "Understood Cain. I'll have a ''quick ''chat with the men. Good luck, old chap." "And you, my friend." Cain finishes the sentence as he passes the militia in the air, as well as the clones they're fighting "Terribly sorry to spoil a fair fight, gentlemen, but we're in something of a hurry here." he says, looming. The clones are beautiful;, white haired, glowing, white-hot skinned women, he realises as he gets close enough to see through the blazing light coronas. We see this reflected in Cain's yellow face plate. And then her reflection turn to see his metal claw clamping around her upper arm. Cain then jets back down to the team at break-neck speed, and lands heavily, kicking up a brief dust cloud. The comic cuts to show the clone's unconscious form. We then cut to Sonne. "I am continuing to bombard nanite system at full strength. I am unable to defeat its security defences." Comes from Sonne's comms "... Damnit, why not?" "Nanite systems, barely detectable. Massive interference from unknown source." "BREAKER isn't working, people. Something's interfering with the systems!" Sonne shouts. Tommy shouts out the car window "Hey! Think Tank! Time to live up to the name!" Atomic's eyes suddenly shoot open, and up...as the parts of her that had degraded into ash...morph, her right arm, upper torso on that side and that side of her face...becoming perfect imitations of those aspects of Blitzkrieg. She is physically shaking with the effort of all this "The signals are coming from...f...from... under the city, which means... four signals..." Those parts of her shift again, this time becoming the features of Wrench. "THE ENGINES! There are four bombs, Under the city, one in each of the engines that enable it to move!" She staggers slightly, as those parts crumble back into ash. Yu watches and listens to Atomic, open-mouthed, totally speechless. "Not...not doing t...that again..." "Engines? Since when did Titan City have ENGINES?.." Tommy yells down "Since Prometheus built the thing" says Iron Jack. "I should know. I was one of the first soldiers to discover the place. led the unit. Explains how it appeared out of the mist, from nowhere, in 1900, doesn't it?" "There was me thinking it teleported..." Gunn adds Atomic spins to face Waterstone, still incredibly unsteady...and fires a dart into her shoulder where she has fallen "U...up you get sir..." "Ma'am, please" she says as she gets to her feet, her bruised face healing. "Whats the sit-rep on the bombs?" "One in e...each engine, director. Four, total..." "Engine of what?" "Titan C...City...don't ask me how I know it's....complicated..." "Titan City has e... oh nevermind." "It m...moves. four e...engines under it." "All right.." she looks at Yu and Cain "Four engines. Four bombs. And somebody to keep Blitzkrieg distracted. You're the tactical geniuses. Get it organised. If you can roughly describe one of the engines locations to me, Atomic, I can take a team. Who is coming?" And then she sees her son "Reb!" "Damn it.... any other medics? my son needs stablising. I can get him to safety, or get a team to a bomb..." she touches his face gently. "I can't do both." Atomic will read out a list of details on where each engine is, the rough location of the bombs therein, and how to reach them...in a strange fusion of her own voice and Wrench's. "All right... i can get people to the engines... can anybody heal my son?" Waterstone asks. A Militiaman with a red cross on one shoduelr riase his hand. "Corporal Griffiths ma'am... they call me 'Super Medic.'" "Who ''are ''the guys in black... nevermind. Okay, see to my son. he dies, live to reget it. Yu, Cain, four engines, four bombs need disarming... I need squads, now!" "I can take care of a bomb", Mr Psychic volunteers. "S...Send a Gunn to each one. I c...can take one...or s...stay here w...with Blitzkrieg..." "I'm... kind of reeling here. I can take one, I think." "...alright. Sonne and Tommy Gunn, a bomb each. Tonic Mr Psychic,, the same." "I've men on hand if necessary, though I'm afraid they're more for setting up the bombs than turning them off again", Cain says. "Have your 'saurs deal with the spheres. My teams will try and keep them from the mainland, but with that tidal wave, any help is good. Okay... not done this before..." Waterstone takes off her glasses. Grey smoke ascends into the sky from her open eye sockets. TICK TOCK TICK TICK TOCK "Not an issue at all", says Mr Psychic. "... Really. Cos if these bombs are under the city..." her voice suddenly gains a black speech bubble with white outline, as it becomes otherwordly. The time-smoke spreads across the area where the team stand. "... You might want to hold your breath. Literally." And with that. the Gunns, Atomic and Mr Psychic disappear, as Waterstone drops to her knees End of issue.